Tuesday Tips: Trophy Snapper Strategies

For trophy-sized snapper, the wrecks and rocks that can be found away from heavily pressure oil rigs are the best.

These “hard spots” may require a little extra effort to find, but more often than not they produce big snapper. Snapper are not drawn to big structure only. The smaller well heads, rocks and tiny reefs hold good numbers of fish, too. And since these areas are not pressured as much as the rigs in this area, you tend to find more big fish there.

Anchor up-current of a given piece of structure and fall back across it. The preferred method when fishing these areas is to use a typical bottom rig with either squid or Spanish sardine rigged on two circle hooks. A lot of times, you’ll have a strong current and you need to get the bait down to the structure. When you’re fishing rigs, you’ve got a little more leeway, but presenting a bait five feet in one direction or another can make all of the difference in the world.

What are your favorite snapper tactics?